The Office: Spank you very much!

Over the years, The Office has become kind of a hit-or-miss show for me. I always watch it, but I don’t always love that. And that happens with a show that’s been on the air for seven years. And though I’m still a little worried about what will happen to the show after Steve Carell departs, I’m happy to report that the season seven premiere of The Office was absolutely hilarious. 
I know what you did last summer
Summer brought plenty of change to Dunder Mifflin. Kelly attended the minority training program, and now can say smart things like “blah blah blah…blah blah blah blah” and tell people that the conversation they’re having about wanting a level playing field is actually a zoning issue. Good to see success hasn’t changed you, Kelly!
The biggest change, of course, is that Erin is now dating Gabe. GABE! How did Andy let this happen?? Erin gushed about Gabe, and said “Thank God he’s my boss, because I would not have said yes to a first date otherwise.” Oh Erin. So weird.
Say Uncle
Everyone in the office was complaining about the new intern, who everyone wholeheartedly agreed was “the worst”. And the kid was the worst. He said he’d delivered important documents when he hadn’t, he listened to music and played Farmville (“My strawberries are ripe!”) at his desk, and got everyone’s coffee orders wrong. He brought Darrell decaf. Decaf! Decaf coffee is worse than Farmville!
Then it turned out that the intern, Luke, was actually Michael’s nephew. Naturally, that news made the situation worse rather than better and everyone freaked out about nepotism. Michael tried to cover for his nephew, but after a childish squabble over a laser pointer (how old was this kid supposed to be? 17? 20?) Michael ended up spanking the guy. He spanked him! In front of everyone! Whether or not you believe in “capital punishment” as Michael said, that is just disturbing – and therefore totally hilarious. 
This land is your land, this land is Dwight’s land
Dwight bought the building, and Jim was trying to pull off what would have been a fantastic prank – adding a few keys to Dwight’s giant janitor-like keyring every day until one day, his pants would fall down. Amazing. Pam ruined it by giggling though, and Jim’s prankster heart was a little bit broken. I don’t blame him – it would have been even better than the time Jim made Dwight’s phone a little bit heavier every day. Pam “The Bart Simpson of Scranton” Halpert tried to make it up to him by pranking Dwight herself.
Pam had Kevin help her rearrange the buttons on the elevator so nothing would work. This was such a failure of  prank, but so hilarious. My first question: who asks Kevin to help them with anything? My second question: why get in the elevator with Dwight? Pam ended up getting stuck in the elevator with Dwight and he immediately peed on the floor. Because that’s what one does when one gets stuck in an elevator. At least when one has been drinking water from a backpack all day. 
Other hilarious things about this episode…
  • The cold open where everyone was lip-syncing and dancing, and Ryan was promoting “Wupfh”.
  • Angela saying she goes out to the parking lot every day to feed feral cats.
  • Michael defending nepotism by saying “Do you think they should have had open auditions for the band Hanson?” and then comparing himself and his nephew to God and Jesus.
  • Meredith breaking into Luke’s car.
  • “Texas justice”.
  • Creed saying he follows Luke on Twitter as Luke is the only person on Twitter not talking about Betty White.
  • The fact that to avoid being fired over the spanking incident, Michael has to do counseling sessions with Toby. Please, please, please Office producers – let us see these.


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